Before anyone was certain who he was — bin Laden was called "The Pacer" in drone footage

"They call him the Pacer because he walks for hours. They keep seeing the Pacer there," Tom said, as he pointed to a courtyard on the east side of the compound. "According to what the intel folks are saying, he walks out in the garden area to exercise from time to time. They think the Pacer is UBL."

Officials decided the operation would have Native American themed code words

"Finally they designated several "pro" words for the operation. Pro words are one-word messages that relay information in an efficient manner. This kept radio traffic to a minimum and made passing information more reliable. On this mission, we chose pro-words with a Native American theme.

SEAL Team 6 did a mock-up raid in front of VIPs before getting White House approval

"After the brief, we loaded up into the helicopters and took off for one final run-through. We were going to assault a mock compound so the VIPs could watch. It was the final hurdle ...

... outside the left door of the helicopter, I could see the life-size mock-up of Bin Laden's compound. Nestled in a remote part of the base, the practice compound was built to scale using plywood, chain-link fence, and shipping containers."

Most SEALs felt certain Obama would take credit for the raid

"We had seen it before when he took credit for the Captain Phillips rescue. Although we applauded the decision-making in this case, there was no doubt in anybody's mind that he would take all the political credit for this too."

Team 6 expected the Abbottabad raid to be a wild goose chase like 2007

AP

"A source said he'd seen a man in 'flowing white robes' in the mountains. After weeks of prep, it was ultimately a wild-goose chase. This time felt different. Before we left, the CIA analyst who was the main force behind tracking the target to Abbottabad said she was 100 percent certain he was there."

Sneakers worn by Taliban fighters often helped SEALs decide who to shoot

"The dead fighters were dressed in baggy shirts and pants and black Cheetahs, high-top Puma-like sneakers worn by the Taliban fighters. It was a running joke in the squadron that if you wore black Cheetahs in Afghanistan, you were automatically a suspect. I've never seen anyone but Taliban fighters in those sneakers."

Bissonnette details a specific way to place a door charge

"I always knelt while I placed breaching charges because I had been at through the door in Iraq many times. Fighters like to spray the middle of the door, blindly firing where they thought a man would be standing."

Glow sticks invisible to the naked eye were used in the bin Laden raid to communicate among Team 6 members

"I also had several chemical lights rigged to the front of my vest, including the infrared version that can only be seen using night vision. We'd crack the plastic lights and throw them in front of rooms and areas that we had cleared."

"We had NVG's with four tubes instead of the usual two, This allowed us a field of view of 120 degrees instead of just 40 degrees. The standard goggles were like looking through toilet paper tubes. Our NVG's allowed us to clear corners more easily and gave us greater situational awareness. Switching on the $65,000 goggles, my room was bathed in a green hue."

Matt Bissonnette truly thought he was going to die when that chopper went down inside the compound

"When helicopters stop working, they fall out of the sky like a rock. When they hit, rotor blades snap off, sending shrapnel and debris in all directions. Sitting in the open door, I feared the cabin would roll, crushing me underneath."

Bin Laden was shot in the head and his death was not pretty

"The point man's shots had entered the right side of his head. Blood and brains spilled out of the side of his skull. In his death throes, he was still twitching and convulsing. Another assaulter and I trained our lasers on his chest and fired several rounds."

Bissonnette measured his words carefully as the President listened in on the whole raid

"He wasn't about to say it was Bin Laden over the radio because he knew that call would be shot like lightning back to Washington. We knew President Obama was listening, so we didn't want to be wrong."

Each helicopter carried DNA samples in case one was captured or killed

"We took two DNA samples and sets of photos so that we had identical sets. This had been carefully planned so if one of the helicopters was shot down on our flight back to Jalalabad, a DNA sample and set of pictures would survive."

The CIA gave Team 6 syringes to pull bin Laden's bone marrow for further DNA testing

"Finally he took out a spring-loaded syringe the CIA gave us to get a blood-marrow sample. We'd been trained to jab it into the thigh to get a sample from inside the femur. Walt jabbed it several times into Bin Laden's thigh, but the needle wouldn't fire."